Róisín Kennedy looks at a major body of work by artist Jennifer Trouton
Northern Ireland artist Jennifer Trouton’s work over recent years has dealt with reproductive justice, a concern that has affected thousands of Irish women, north and south, for many generations. Until very recently, abortion was in both jurisdictions a completely taboo subject. The liberal provision introduced into Britain in 1967 was not extended to Northern Ireland. In the Republic, many girls and women were incarcerated for becoming pregnant outside marriage, while the state forbade even married women from managing their own fertility and by extension controlling their own bodies. This official refusal to acknowledge the social, economic, psychological and medical reasons for abortion made the lives of Irish women difficult and shameful.
To read this article in full, subscribe or buy this edition of the Irish Arts Review
Anne Stewart selects The Nativity by Baldassarre Peruzzi from the Ulster Museum collection
Kenneth McConkey recounts the story of how two great Irish painters, John Lavery and William Orpen, recorded the greatest ballerina of her generation, Anna Pavlova
Marie Lynch celebrates the life and work of illustrator and watercolour artist Naomi Heather
